Well hellooooo there! First of all, thanks for your sweet thoughts about my son! He's doing GREAT -- actually improved quite a bit within 24 hours. So I felt OK leaving town with my stepdaughter, more on that later. And I am overwhelmed by your comments on the pantry. Glad I wasn't the only one who was gaga over it!

Before I tell you about our trip...I have to give you a rundown of my VERY VERY BAD week last week.

Saturday night, on a date with my husband, our car was broken into while we had dinner. Window smashed, bags taken, police report, all the fun stuff. Felt so relieved and blessed when an hour later, they found our bags tossed just around the corner and all that was taken was my husband's iPod.

Took three days to get my window fixed because of two mess ups with the window replacement companies.

Found our our son had pneumonia, as you know, right before both my husband and I were leaving town to separate places and leaving him with family. NOT fun. He's never done breathing treatments and was a champ, but I was a bit of a mess at the thought of leaving him.

He was doing much better the next day, I was feeling better about leaving town. Then we realized a STUPID financial mistake that cost us $1,000 -- and I felt like it was MY fault. My sweet husband argues that but I felt completely responsible. I cried. A lot. (A lot a lot.)

I had to leave by 3 a.m. Friday morning to get us to the airport, and ended up getting NO sleep that night because of my mind racing. None. Zilch.

I pulled out of the garage at 3 a.m. and proceeded to back (slam.) right into my sister's car. Hard. Cussed a bit, pulled up into our garage to get around her, and then ran over my son's not-cheap stroller. RAN OVER IT. Needless to say, it's a goner.

So, you can tell by now, I really, really, REALLY needed a weekend away. That came in the form of a school trip with my stepdaughter to New York City. Some of you already know my love for this city. We love it so much, we got married there. So it was just what I needed. I had to share some of my love with you all:

I took advantage of our free time that first day by walking around and getting my NYC mojo back -- it's been a couple years since I've been there. I stumbled upon this:

Any of you that are Sex in the City fans know this little bakery -- I never really watched the show, but have heard about this place for awhile now. I knew I must. have. a cupcake. I wish I had the nerve to take pics inside...but I will only go so far. I'm a tourist through and through. But these were REAL New Yorkers in line...I couldn't do it! It was just beautiful...old fashioned tin lights, tile floors. Beadboard everywhere. Aqua subway tiles. Carrera marble countertops. GORG!!

I got a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese icing. Oh. my. Goodness:

Stop with the goofy eyes, my girlfriend said. So she tried again...

Now, stop with the freaky eyes. Tried again:

There we go. I wasn't processing well -- I had been up for 24+ hours straight and that cupcake was blowing my mind!!

Times Square is ALIVE. No other way to put it:

People don't think of NYC as a family vacation but you SHOULD!! There are so many fun places for children! You could spend days just in FAO Schwartz, Toys R Us, Central Park, the Hershey's store, the M&M store -- it's endless.

There is a massive ferris wheel inside Toys R Us:

There are so many fun things to look at in the store -- a life-size Barbie house, massive Lego buildings, the coolest Thomas train table I've ever seen (my son would DIE!), and more fun stuff, like this guy, who moves around and gives you the stink eye:

Told you:

Look at the all of the M&M colors to pick from at the M&M store! Three floors of this stuff!:

If you go, you must see a show. One of our favorites is Wicked:

This time we saw Billy Elliot and it was A-mazing. I can't even tell you how amazing. It will take your breath away:

Kids would LOVE Lion King, or Little Mermaid. This time we saw Shrek, which wasn't one of the best I've seen, but young kids would have a blast!

And you have to go to the top of something. On my first trip to NYC, we were able to go to the top of the Statue of Liberty, but you can't do that anymore. We've also been to the Empire State Building, and this time went to the "Top of the Rock" -- Rockefeller Center. Best view I've seen yet. This is facing north, toward Central Park:

Looking down at the city:

And south, toward the Statue and the Empire State Building. The twin towers stood all the way down at the end, slightly to the right. You can see how bare the sky looks there now. Still hard to see it that way:

Sigh. I love this city. I just adore it. I can't really explain it, but I love it like a person. Weird, I know...it just makes you feel alive.

Boy, did I need it this week!! Now, I'm recovering from 18 hours of sleep in four days. I'm off to take a nap. :)